1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a tire having high strength side walls wherein the sidewalls are manufactured with a pattern of alternating and radially aligned inwardly and outwardly extending pleats or corrugations. The tire herein disclosed has particular application to be installed on a motorcycle and offers the advantage of improved structural integrity for the sidewalls so as to avoid potential damage to the rim and provide ran flat support.
2. Background Art
Depending upon the vehicle and/or the terrain over which the vehicle will be driven, it is often necessary to have available a high strength tire that is suitable to withstand the forces to which the tire will be subjected during its use. A common practice to produce a high strength tire is to increase the thickness of the sidewall and/or add additional fibrous textile plies around the tire circumference. As a consequence of the aforementioned conventional, manufacturing technique of adding more material to the tire to increase its strength, the weight of the tire is correspondingly increased. In this same regard, adding weight to a tire is likely to adversely affect the vehicle's performance as well as the fuel costs of the vehicle on which a set of the heavy tires is installed.
Accordingly, what would be desirable is a tire that can be manufactured, with sidewalls of increased strength, but without adding significant weight to the tire, negatively impacting the vehicle's performance, or increasing the cost of operating a vehicle on which a set of the tires is installed.